That said, I hope to post some random non-subtitled goodies soon. I treat my blog a bit like a television network and you know it's time for the season premieres of the regular "series" (see sidebar). But first: NYFF musings, reviews, anecdotes. Soon... soon.... I am only one man.

21 comments:

Is it possible and/or likely for Persepolis to be nominated in both animated and foreign? That doesn't seem to happen, ever. Triplets of Belleville was not nommed for foreign in its year, nor were any of Miyazaki's animé films. But they probably weren't selected by their countries, either.

Still, it'd be weird if that happened. I suppose if it did, Persepolis would be more likely to win one (i.e. foreign film, since animated is locked up).

I just saw that Mexico is already among your current predictions, which is interesting since we don't know yet which film is going to be submitted. The elected movie should be announced in about 20 hours...

In the meanwhile, I think Stellet Licht is by far the best candidate Mexico can have this year. La Misma Luna and Malos Habitos are also said to be strong contenders, but I will be disappointed if one of them is chosen.

If the Mexican Academy choses Stellet Licht, it will be a recognition for audacious, not conventional cinema, which really needs to be encouraged. In a certain way, last year submission for Pan's Labyrinth was encouragement for daring filmmaking.

By the way, a nomination for Persepolis in the Oscars seems quite audacious. Let's hope it will be between the 5 finalists.

adam the princess mononoke was submitted... triplets and spirited away were not.

i'm still not really sure about Persepolis in either category. The Oscars are swayed by critical consensus (though some pundits like to think they aren't) but spirited away aside they're very Disney (not the company --just the idea of kids films) when it comes to animation.

as far as i know no animated film has ever been nominated in foreign but they have been submitted before -and not just by france or japan. The difference with Persepolis will be whether the critics rally. We saw last year that the new voting system (drawing up a list of finalists) tends to favor the big ticket entries that they know they're supposed to love... even if they did snub Volver. GRRRRRR

I agree that the Best Animated Feature category is swayed by critical consensus, but I don't think they consciously skew Disney when they choose a winner. Just look at every winner - ever Disney-esque winner had large critical backing - Shrek, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Wallace and Gromitt: Curse of the Were-Rabbitt, and Happy Feet. They went with Spirited Away in 2002, when it was the only animated film with a large critical following. So compared to other categories, I think they've done their job pretty well. The question is Persepolis (assuming in continues to get the type of reviews its been getting) is whether or not they will go for something offbeat when they have an equally praised Disney film to choose from (in Ratatouille).

The big difference between Spirited Away and Persepolis is that Spirited Away was a Miyazaki film and the animation branch finally had a chance to recognise him (who were the animation branch before the animation category btw?) whereas the two directors of Persepolis are making their feature debut.

Speaking of Chomet his next film is an animated film based on an unproduced Jacques Tati screenplay. Is that not heaven to the Academy's ears?

Indonesia selected Denias, about a bright, young boy from the remote Indonesian province of West Papua, who is determined to continue his studies despite being turned away from the provincial school due to an inability to pay the tuition fees.

And bad news (I think so)Israel had to choose a new film to be represned,because Band's Visit is more then 50% on english,new film is Beaufort...I hate...

And the last one,I suggest you to change poster of russian film 12 to this one:http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4199/123iu0.jpg